Entering text into an electronic communications device

ABSTRACT

In a method of entering text into an electronic communications device by means of a keypad having a number of keys, each key representing a plurality of letters and/or phonetic symbols, entered text is displayed on a display on the device. Possible phonetic syllables corresponding to an activated key sequence are generated. These are compared with a stored vocabulary comprising syllables and corresponding characters occurring in a given language. Those stored syllables and corresponding characters that match the possible syllables are pre-selected; and a number of these are presented in a separate first graphical object arranged predominantly on the display. Characters corresponding to one of the syllables in the first object are simultaneously presented in a second graphical object. Thus, there is provided a way of entering text with characters having a phonetic representation by means of keys representing a plurality of letters or phonetic symbols, which may be easier to use even in the case where a phonetic syllable corresponds to several characters.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a method of entering text into an electroniccommunications device by means of a keypad having a number of keys, eachkey representing a plurality of letters and/or phonetic symbols, andwherein entered text is displayed on a display arranged on theelectronic communications device, the method comprising the steps ofactivating a sequence of keys; generating possible phonetic syllablescorresponding to said activated key sequence; comparing said possiblesyllables with a vocabulary stored in a memory, said vocabularycomprising syllables and corresponding characters occurring in a givenlanguage; pre-selecting those of said stored syllables and correspondingcharacters that match said possible syllables; and presenting a numberof the pre-selected characters on said display. The invention furtherrelates to an electronic communications device featuring the option ofentering text into the device.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

Electronic communications devices, such as mobile telephones andPersonal Digital Assistants (PDA's), often utilize a numeric keypad forentering numeric information, such as telephone numbers or timeinformation, into these devices. However, there is typically also a needto enter text information into such devices. Examples are names,addresses and messages to be sent to other similar devices. Since thesedevices only rarely have sufficiently large dimensions for thearrangement of a normal alphanumeric keyboard, the numeric keypad mustbe used also for text information. Consequently, each key corresponds tomultiple different characters. As an example, the “2” key typically alsocorresponds to the letters A, B and C.

One well known method of entering text information from such a keypad isthe multi-tap method by which the user is allowed to iterate through thepossible characters by pressing the corresponding key multiple times. Toenter e.g. the letter “A”, the user presses the “2” key a single time,while the key is pressed three times to enter the letter “C”. The keymust be pressed multiple times relatively fast to ensure that thecorrect letter is recognized. Alternatively, a separate key is used toiterate through the possibilities, once one of the numeric keys has beenpressed.

An improved method uses a predictive editor application for entering andediting text information. One such method is shown in U.S. Pat. No.6,307,548. When text is entered using predictive input, each key is onlypressed once, and the display will show one of the possible lettersequences corresponding to the entered key sequence, typically the onewhich is most commonly used in the language of the user, or by using theexact match approach. There is no time limit, so it is possible to pressthe keys relatively fast after each other. If, for example, a user(using the English language) enters the key sequence “2” (ABC), “7”(PQRS) and “3” (DEF), 36 different letter sequences are possible.

However, only five of these (ARE, APE, CRE, BRE and ARD) are found aswords or word stems in the stored vocabulary of the device. “ARE” hasthe highest frequency of use and it will thus be shown in the display.If this is the word the user intended to write, it can be accepted bypressing an acceptance key, which could typically be the key used forentering a space character. If it is not the correct word, the user maystep through the other proposals by using a select key until the correctword is shown at the insertion point in the text, before it is acceptedwith the acceptance key. During letter entry, i.e. as long as a word hasnot yet been accepted, the word is held “open”, which is typically shownby underlining of the word (or letter sequence) or drawing of a boxaround it. This illustrates that the shown word is just one of theoptions or candidates provided by the vocabulary.

As mentioned, one candidate is presented on the display in the textmessage entered by the user. The other candidates may be cycled throughby use of a select key, e.g. one of the arrow up/down keys. Each time adifferent candidate is inserted into the text on the display. If thedisplay of the device is large enough, it is known from e.g. U.S. Pat.No. 6,307,548 to facilitate the navigation by locating a selection listregion below the text region, wherein a list of at least some of thecandidates is provided. One of the candidates in the selection list ismarked in that it e.g. appears within a box drawn with solid or dottedlines, and the same candidate is also shown at the insertion point ofthe text message. Pressing a select key moves the box to the nextcandidate in the list which is also then shown at the insertion point.When the correct word is shown in the box in the selection list and atthe insertion point, it can be accepted and the system is ready for thenext word to be entered.

In some languages using other character types, such as Chinesecharacters, a standard phonetic representation of these characters hasbeen adopted. As an example, “pinyin” is a phonetic representation ofChinese characters. Thus each Chinese character has a correspondingpinyin representation or pinyin syllable, which is composed ofcombinations of the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet, with the exceptionthat the letter “ü” is added and the letter “v” removed, although “v”often represents “ü” on small keypads. It is noted that one pinyinrepresentation normally represents several different Chinese characters.Thus a standard keypad of the above-mentioned type can also be used forentering such characters, and also the predictive editor can be used. Anexample of this is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,952,942. The lettersequences are here considered as phonetic syllables, each of which canbe represented by a number of corresponding characters. Therefore, theuser must first find the intended phonetic syllable, i.e. lettersequence, as described above, and then in a next step the intended oneof the corresponding characters has to be selected. Thus an enteredpinyin is presented on the display, and when the user has accepted thepinyin by pressing a key, a list providing some of the characterscorresponding to the selected pinyin syllable is shown. However, thisprocedure is quite complicated and it will be confusing to many users.Especially for inexperienced users it is not obvious how to scrollthrough the different candidates in two levels and select one of thecandidates for insertion in the text. These problems lead to a situationwhere many users desist from using predictive text input.

Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a way of enteringtext using characters with a phonetic representation by means of keysrepresenting a plurality of letters and/or phonetic symbols, which iseasier to use even in the case where a phonetic syllable corresponds toseveral characters, and which leads to a lower error rate in the enteredtext.

SUMMARY

According to the invention the object is achieved in that a number ofthe pre-selected phonetic syllables are presented on the display in aseparate first graphical object arranged predominantly on the display,and in that characters corresponding to at least one of the syllablespresented in the first graphical object are simultaneously presented ina second graphical object.

By presenting the pre-selected phonetic syllables in a separategraphical object, e.g. in the form of a separate window on the display,arranged pre-dominantly on the display and simultaneously thecorresponding characters in another graphical object, the user caneasily get an overview of the possibilities, and it is easy to navigatebetween the candidates using the keys of the keypad. Thus the number oferrors during text entry can be reduced. For new and inexperienced usersthe separate graphical object will make it more intuitive to usepredictive text input, because the word candidates are shown directlyand clearly on the display.

Further, the separate graphical object will also reduce the need forcomputational resources, which is very important in small communicationsdevices. In the known solutions it normally takes a considerable amountof CPU power to keep the text layout up to date on the display, becausethe processor has to handle the process of searching for candidates inthe vocabulary, presenting them in the selection list and updating thetext shown at the insertion point of the text message when the useriterates through the possible candidates. With a separate graphicalobject there is no need to update the text at the insertion point sooften. Actually, the text does not need to be updated at all before thegraphical object is closed when candidate is accepted. This results in alower and more stable processor load. This is important because thecurrent predictive text input systems often cause a heavy load on theprocessor.

When the method further comprises the step of indicating distinctly oneof the syllables presented in said separate first graphical object andin that the characters presented in the second graphical objectcorrespond to the syllable distinctly indicated, it is much easier tosee which one of the phonetic syllables is presently suggested, andwhich characters correspond thereto.

In an embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises thesteps of rank ordering the pre-selected phonetic syllables according totheir frequency of use in said language, and indicating distinctly asdefault the most commonly used phonetic syllable in said separate firstgraphical object. In this way it is ensured that the suggested candidateis the one that the user with the highest probability intended to enter.

When the method further comprises the step of allowing a user toindicate distinctly a different one of said pre-selected phoneticsyllables, it is easy for the user to navigate between the candidatesand to see which one is suggested at any given time.

When the method further comprises the steps of allowing a user to selectone of the characters corresponding to the indicated phonetic syllable,and adding the selected character to the text displayed on the display,the display is updated with the selected character when the user hasmade his choice.

When the method further comprises the step of removing said separatefirst graphical object from the display when a character has beenselected, the user is allowed to obtain an overview of the entiremessage before the process is continued with the entry of furthercharacters. While the separate first graphical object is very usefulduring entry of a character, it will often be more helpful with anoverview between entry of the individual characters.

The method may further comprise the step of removing said separate firstgraphical object from the display when a predefined period of time haselapsed since the last activation of a key. If no keys have beenactivated for a certain time, e.g. in the middle of a character, theuser might have been disturbed, and it will often be more convenient tosee the overview when the entry process is resumed. As soon as a key isactivated again, the graphical object will reappear.

The method may also comprise the step of arranging said number ofpre-selected phonetic syllables vertically in said separate firstgraphical object.

The vertical presentation of the pre-selected phonetic syllables isexpedient because it corresponds to the list of the candidates stored inthe memory.

In an expedient embodiment the step of allowing a user to indicatedistinctly a different one of said pre-selected phonetic syllables isperformed by allowing the user to navigate between individualpre-selected phonetic syllables by activating an upwards-key forindicating a phonetic syllable presented just above the phoneticsyllable presently indicated, and by activating a downwards-key forindicating a phonetic syllable presented just below the phoneticsyllable presently indicated.

The method may further comprise the step of allowing the user, in thecase where not all pre-selected phonetic syllables are presented in saidseparate first graphical object, to exclude one of the presentlypresented phonetic syllables and instead present a phonetic syllable notpresently presented by activation of one of the upwards- anddownwards-keys. In this way the user can scroll through the list ofcandidates, even when it comprises a larger number of candidates.

The method may further comprise the step of allowing the user tonavigate between individual characters in said second graphical objectby activating a left arrow key and/or a right arrow key. In this way theuser can easily scroll through the characters, even when there are alarger number of characters.

When the method further comprises the step of adjusting the width ofsaid separate first graphical object according to the length of thephonetic syllables being presented, a dynamic graphical object isachieved which adapts to the size of the phonetic syllables shown.

Further the method may comprise the step of presenting the phoneticsyllables in said separate first graphical object with a font size whichis adjusted in accordance with the length of the phonetic syllablesbeing presented. Thus also the presentation of long syllables ispossible in the graphical object.

In an expedient embodiment the method further comprises the step ofgenerating said possible phonetic syllables as pinyin representations.As an alternative, they may be generated as bopomofo representations.

The method may further comprise the step of showing a cursor incombination with the distinctly indicated phonetic syllable. The cursoris a further help to ensure that the attention of the user is focused onthe graphical object with the syllables.

The method may further comprise the step of keeping text that isdisplayed outside said separate first graphical object unchanged as longas said separate first graphical object is shown on the display. In thisway considerable amounts of processor resources may be saved.

Processor resources may also be saved when the method further comprisesthe step of updating text that is displayed outside said separate firstgraphical object at a low rate compared to the key activation rate aslong as said separate first graphical object is shown on the display.

As mentioned, the invention further relates to an electroniccommunications device featuring the option of entering text into thedevice, and comprising a keypad having a number of keys, each keyrepresenting a plurality of letters and/or phonetic symbols; a displayarranged on the electronic communications device, on which entered textmay be displayed; a memory, wherein a vocabulary comprising phoneticsyllables and corresponding characters occurring in a given language isstored; means for generating possible phonetic syllables correspondingto a sequence of activated keys; means for comparing said possiblephonetic syllables with said stored vocabulary and pre-selecting storedphonetic syllables and corresponding characters that match said possiblesyllables; and means for presenting a number of the pre-selectedcharacters on said display. When the presenting means is arranged topresent a number of said pre-selected phonetic syllables on the displayin a separate first graphical object arranged predominantly on thedisplay, and to present characters corresponding to at least one of thesyllables presented in the first graphical object simultaneously in asecond graphical object, a way of entering text using characters with aphonetic representation by means of keys representing a plurality ofcharacters is achieved, which is easier to use even in the case where aphonetic syllable corresponds to several characters, and which leads toa reduced error rate in the entered text.

When the presenting means is further arranged to indicate distinctly oneof the syllables presented in said separate first graphical object, saiddistinctly indicated syllable corresponding to the characters presentedin the second graphical object, it is much easier to see which one ofthe phonetic syllables is presently suggested, and which characterscorrespond thereto.

In an embodiment of the invention, the device is further arranged torank order the pre-selected phonetic syllables according to theirfrequency of use in said language, and indicate distinctly as defaultthe most commonly used phonetic syllable in said separate firstgraphical object. In this way it is ensured that the suggested candidateis the one that the user with the highest probability intended to enter.

When the device is further arranged to allow a user to indicatedistinctly a different one of said pre-selected phonetic syllables, itis easy for the user to move around between the candidates and to seewhich one is suggested at any given time.

When the device is further arranged to allow a user to select one of thecharacters corresponding to the indicated phonetic syllable, and add theselected character to the text displayed on the display, the display isupdated with the selected character when the user has made his choice.

When the device is further arranged to remove said separate firstgraphical object from the display when a character has been selected,the user is allowed to get an overview of the entire message before theprocess is continued with the entry of further characters. While theseparate first graphical object is very useful during entry of acharacter, it will often be more helpful with an overview between entryof the individual characters.

The device may further be arranged to remove said separate firstgraphical object from the display when a predefined period of time haselapsed since the last activation of a key. If no keys have beenactivated for a certain time, e.g. in the middle of a character, theuser might have been disturbed, and it will often be more convenient tosee the overview when the entry process is resumed. As soon as a key isactivated again, the graphical object will reappear.

The device may further be arranged to present said number ofpre-selected phonetic syllables vertically in said separate graphicalobject. The vertical presentation of the pre-selected phonetic syllablesis expedient because it corresponds to the list of the candidates storedin the memory.

In an expedient embodiment the device is further arranged to allow auser to indicate distinctly a different one of said pre-selectedphonetic syllables by allowing the user to navigate between individualpre-selected phonetic syllables by activating an upwards-key forindicating a phonetic syllable presented just above the phoneticsyllable presently indicated, and by activating a downwards-key forindicating a phonetic syllable presented just below the phoneticsyllable presently indicated.

The device may further be arranged to allow the user, in the case wherenot all pre-selected phonetic syllables are presented in said separatefirst graphical object, to exclude one of the presently presentedphonetic syllables 10 and instead present a phonetic syllable notpresently presented by activation of one of the upwards- anddownwards-keys. In this way the user can scroll through the list ofcandidates, even when it comprises a large number of candidates.

The device may further be arranged to allow the user to navigate betweenindividual characters in said second graphical object by activating aleft arrow key and/or a right arrow key. In this way the user can easilyscroll through the characters, even when the second graphical objectcomprises a large number of characters.

When the device is further arranged to adjust the width of said separatefirst graphical object according to the length of the phonetic syllablesbeing presented, a dynamic graphical object is achieved which adapts tothe size of the phonetic syllables shown.

Further the device may be arranged to present the phonetic syllables insaid separate first graphical object with a font size which is adjustedaccording to the length of the phonetic syllables being presented. Thusalso the presentation of long syllables is possible in the graphicalobject.

In an expedient embodiment the possible phonetic syllables are pinyinrepresentations. As an alternative, the possible phonetic syllables maybe bopomofo representations.

The device may further be arranged to show a cursor in combination withthe distinctly indicated phonetic syllables. The cursor is a furtherhelp to ensure that the attention of the user is focused on thegraphical object with the syllables.

The device may further be arranged to keep text that is displayedoutside said separate first graphical object unchanged as long as saidseparate first graphical object is shown on the display. In this wayconsiderable amounts of processor resources may be saved.

Processor resources may also be saved when the device is furtherarranged to update text that is displayed outside said separate firstgraphical object at a low rate compared to the key activation rate aslong as said separate first graphical object is shown on the display.

In an expedient embodiment the generating means, comparing means andpresenting means are implemented in a processor.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described more fully below with reference tothe drawings, in which

FIG. 1 shows a mobile telephone in which the invention may be used;

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the telephone in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3 to 5 show examples of the display of a known predictive editor;

FIGS. 6 and 7 show the use of a separate graphical object on the displayduring activation of a key;

FIG. 8 shows the display when the user highlights another syllable;

FIG. 9 shows the display when the user highlights another candidate;

FIGS. 10 to 13 show the display when the key sequence is continued;

FIG. 14 shows the display when a different syllable is selected;

FIG. 15 shows the display when a different character is selected;

FIG. 16 shows the display when the selected character is accepted;

FIG. 17 shows an alternative version of the display when the selectedcharacter is accepted;

FIG. 18 shows a different way of navigating between the syllables; and

FIG. 19 shows the display when a larger font size is used in thegraphical object.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows an example of a device in which the invention can be used.The shown device is a mobile telephone 1, e.g. a GSM telephone and/or aUMTS telephone. Other types of telephones are CDMA, PDC, CDMA2000 andTDMA. However, it should be noted that the invention could be used inother types of devices also. As examples, PDA's (Personal DigitalAssistant) and computers may be mentioned.

The telephone 1 is equipped with a display 2 and a keypad 3. The keys ofthe keypad 3 are used for entering information into the telephone. Thisinformation may be of many various types, such as telephone numbers,address information, instructions to the telephone and text messages tobe sent to another telephone. The display 2 is used for presentation ofinformation to the user of the mobile telephone. Also the presentedinformation may be of various types, such as telephone numbers, addressinformation, indications from the telephone, text messages received fromanother telephone, or text messages entered by the keypad 3 for latertransmission to another telephone.

As shown, the keypad 3 is a numeric keypad having only a limited numberof keys. Thus each key corresponds to multiple different characters whenthe keypad is used for entering text information. As an example the “3”key also corresponds to the letters D, E and F. To facilitate text entrymany such devices are equipped with a predictive editor, which is anintelligent software protocol capable of suggesting possible charactersequences corresponding to a given key sequence entered by the user. Onesuch well known predictive editor is named T9™ (registered trademarkowned by Tegic Communications, Inc.), which is commercially availableand well described in the art. Another one is eZyText™ (registeredtrademark owned by Zy Corporation). Thus the function of the predictiveeditor will only be described very briefly with reference to FIG. 2.Below the function is first described for messages in a language, suchas English, using the Roman alphabet, but as described later, alsomessages using e.g. Chinese characters can be handled.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the telephone 2 also includes a processor 4and a memory 5. In the memory 5 a vocabulary 6 is stored which comprisesa list of allowable letter sequences for a given language, i.e. lettersequences which form words or word stems in that language. Of course adevice may have several different vocabularies corresponding todifferent languages stored in the memory. When a user enters a keysequence from the keypad 3 the possible corresponding letter sequencesare generated in the unit 7 in the processor 4. If, for instance, theuser (using the English language) enters the key sequence “4” (GHI), “6”(MNO), “6” (MNO) and “3” (DEF), 81 different letter sequences arepossible. These are now compared (in the comparing unit 8) to thevocabulary 6, and it is found that only 12 of the 81 possible lettersequences are stored in the vocabulary 6 as English words or word stems.Thus these 12 letter sequences are now selected as candidates forpresentation to the user, and the driver 9 presents them on the display2. Often the vocabulary 6 also contains information of the frequency ofuse for each letter sequence in the relevant language, and in that casethe selected sequences may further be ranked according to their use, sothat the most commonly used letter sequence is presented at the top ofthe list. In this case “good” is the most commonly used word among the12 selected letter sequences, and it is thus presented to the user asthe first suggestion.

The presentation to the user is illustrated in FIG. 3, in which the userhas entered the words “This is” followed by the above sequence. Since“good” is the first of the suggestions, it is shown on the display. Itis shown that “good” is underlined to indicate that this word is stillopen, i.e. it may still be changed to another one of the selectedpossibilities. Further, it is indicated in the upper right corner of thedisplay that this suggestion is the first of the 12 possibilities byshowing “1/12” in a box. If this is the word the user intended to enter,it can be accepted by e.g. entering a space character. The acceptance isshown by moving the cursor to the next position, and “good” will nolonger be underlined.

If, however, it is not the intended word, the user can move to the nextone on the list by means of e.g. an “arrow down” key. As shown in FIG.4, the system then suggests “home” and indicates “2/12” in the uppercorner. In FIG. 5 this step has been repeated, and the system suggests“gone”. When the intended word is shown, it can be accepted as describedabove, and the user can continue with the next word.

It may also be possible to go back to an earlier entered word and“re-open” it to switch to another candidate or to continue typing toachieve a longer word. In some systems there are also options to extendthe vocabulary search to get “word completion”. In this case a candidatelonger than the number of key entries can be shown, and often this wordis inserted in the vocabulary by the user.

For languages using phonetic symbols, such as Chinese, the entering ofmessages is a little more complicated. Below is shown as an example howChinese characters can be entered using “pinyin” which is a standardphonetic representation of the Chinese characters. Pinyin is used in themainland China, as well as Hong Kong and Singapore, while anotherrepresentation, Bopomofo, is used today in Taiwan only. Each Chinesecharacter has a corresponding pinyin representation or pinyin syllable,which is composed of combinations of the 26 letters of the Romanalphabet. It is noted that one pinyin-representation normally representsseveral different Chinese 10 characters. Thus a standard keypad of theabove-mentioned type can also be used for entering such characters, andalso the predictive editor can be used. Entered letter sequences arethen considered as phonetic syllables, each of which can be representedby a number of corresponding characters. The user entering messagesmust, when a key sequence has been entered, is first find the intendedphonetic syllable, i.e. letter sequence, as described above, and thenthe intended one of the corresponding characters has to be selected.

An example of an improved solution according to the invention will nowbe described. The example uses pinyin representation of Chinesecharacters, but the method can also be used for other ideographicallanguages or representations, such as Japanese and Korean. Bopomofo canbe mentioned as another example. In the pinyin representation the keysof the device can be marked with the letters of the Roman alphabet,while other representations may use keys marked with phonetic symbols,e.g. Bopomofo symbols.

A new graphical input object, e.g. in the form of a separate window, isshown on the display. This object co-exists with the text editor and theoriginal predictive input method described above. It can be pictured asa data list with built-in search function. The data in the data list isthe complete vocabulary, i.e. hundreds of pinyin syllables. However, thesearch function does not only sort syllables, it also prunes away allnot matching syllables, thus keeping the number at a very reasonablecount, typically below 10.

The first graphical object is only visible on the display when keys havebeen pressed and a syllable is open. It is completely invisible when acharacter has been accepted. The graphical object looks like an ordinarylist object showing a number of candidates at the same time, and it willbe described in more detail in the following.

FIG. 6 and the following figures show an example of how the object canbe shown on the display 3 of the mobile telephone 1 from FIG. 1. FIG. 6shows the display when the device is ready for the entering of amessage. A cursor indicates the insertion point where the new textmessage will appear as it is entered, in this case in the form ofChinese characters. In the following it is assumed that the user intendsto enter the Chinese character

having the pinyin representation or pinyin syllable “zhang”.

In FIG. 7 the user has activated the key “9 wxyz” to enter the firstletter of the pinyin representation. The predictive editor finds thosepinyin representations in the vocabulary that starts with w, x, y or z,and a number of these are presented in the new graphical object orwindow 11. This object is shown on the display so that it covers a partof the existing display and thus attracts the attention of the user, andit may also have a colour different from the background to improve thiseffect.

The graphical object is shown as a vertical list. The found pinyinrepresentations are also rank ordered according the frequency of use,and thus in this example the graphical object 11 shows the five mostcommonly used of the found pinyin representations. Since “yi” is themost commonly used of the five shown syllables, it is presented at thetop of the list. Further this syllable is indicated distinctly byhighlighting, e.g. by a different colour, to indicate that this is thepinyin syllable suggested by the predictive editor. The little arrow atthe bottom of the window 11 indicates that the list of found syllablescontains more than the five shown syllables. Further, a number of theChinese characters corresponding to the pinyin “yi” are shownhorizontally in a second graphical object 21, which in this example isarranged at the bottom of the display. Also one of these characters (−)is highlighted as being the currently suggested character. The arrowshown to the right of this graphical object indicates that furthercharacters are contained in the list.

It is noted that in FIG. 7 the suggested Chinese character is not shownat the original insertion point in the entered text. Since the attentionof the user is now focused on the objects 11 and 21, this indication isnot needed, and often this insertion point will be hidden behind the newobject, so there is no need to update it before the character currentlybeing entered is accepted. Therefore, processor resources may be savedby this indication not being updated. However, it is also possible justto update it at a lower rate, which will still save processor resources.It is noted that the cursor at the insertion point, i.e. in the textarea, on the display is not shown in this figure. Normally, is thecursor is visible only in the beginning, i.e. before the activation of akey, and when a character has been accepted and the graphical object 11made invisible, as will be described below. However, this cursor mayalso be maintained, but in that case it will normally be non-flashing inorder not to attract the attention of the user.

The user can navigate between the presented pinyin representations andcharacters, e.g. by use of arrow keys (arrow up, arrow down, arrow leftand arrow right) arranged as a section of the keypad 3. The up/down keysare used to highlight another pinyin representation in the list 11. Thusin FIG. 8 the user has activated the arrow down key once, and the pinyinsyllable “wo” is now highlighted. The characters shown in the graphicalobject 21 are thus now those corresponding to this syllable. FIG. 9shows the situation if the user had activated the arrow right keyinstead of the arrow down key. The pinyin syllables are here the same asin FIG. 7, but the highlighting of a character in the object 21 is nowmoved one step to the right.

In the situation described here the user will continue by entering thenext letter of the pinyin syllable, and thus there is no need tonavigate and to make any decision about which of the shown syllables orcharacters is actually the intended one.

In FIG. 10 the user has now also activated the key “4 ghi” and thesyllables shown in the graphical object 11 are now a number of thosehaving one of the letters w, x, y and z as the first letter and one ofthe letters g, h and i as the second letter. The most commonly used ofthese is still “yi”, and thus the characters shown in the graphicalobject 21 are the same as those shown in FIG. 7. Again the arrowindicates that there are more than five syllables in the list.

In FIG. 11 the user has activated the key “2 abc”, and again the objectshows the five candidates at the top of the list and a number of thecharacters corresponding to the syllable “xia”, which is now at the topof the list. Similarly, in FIG. 12 the key “6 mno” has been activated.It is noted that the width of the graphical object 12 has now beenenlarged to accommodate the longer character sequences.

Finally, in FIG. 13, the key “4 ghi” has been activated, and it is seenthat now there are only two syllables, “xiang” and “zhang”, in the listcorresponding to the entered key sequence. Therefore also the height ofthe object 13 has been adjusted to the two syllables shown. The syllable“xiang” is mentioned at the top of the list as the most commonly used ofthe two, but since the user wanted the syllable “zhang”, he activatesthe arrow down key to highlight this syllable, as shown in FIG. 14. Thecharacters corresponding to “zhang” are now shown in the horizontalobject 21. It is seen that the intended character

is positioned just to the right of the currently highlighted character.Therefore the user activates the arrow right key, and the result isshown in FIG. 15 in which the correct character is highlighted. The usercan now accept this character by e.g. activating a soft key or a yeskey. The graphical objects 13 and 21 may then be removed and theselected character inserted at the insertion point as shown in FIG. 16.The system is now ready for the next character.

Alternatively, the graphical object 21 may be maintained on the display.Often characters are associated to each other so that after a certaincharacter, certain other characters are very likely to occur. Therefore,when a character has been accepted and inserted into the text as above,the graphical object 21 can present a list of characters that are likelyto follow the accepted one. This is illustrated in FIG. 17 in which anumber of characters associated to, or likely to follow, the acceptedcharacter

is shown. If the user actually intended to enter one of these charactersafter the one already accepted, it lo can be accepted directly, and thetime to enter another syllable is saved. Similarly, the graphical object21 could also be shown in FIG. 6, i.e. before the entering of charactersis initiated. In this case it could present characters which are oftenused as the first characters in a new message. If the user actuallywishes to start with one of these, it can be accepted directly

It can be noted that in the example described above all the syllablesbeginning with the entered key sequence are listed in the list of whichthe first five members are shown in the graphical object 11, 12 or 13.Thus in FIG. 7 the list is very long since only one letter has beenentered. Alternatively, the list can be limited to only those pinyinsyllables that actually match the entered key sequence, i.e. one lettersyllables in the first step, two letter syllables in the next, and soon. When all syllables beginning with the entered key sequence arelisted, as above, the user does not necessarily have to enter all theletters in the wanted pinyin representation, because the syllable soughtfor is also included in the list provided after only one or a few keystrokes. As an example, from FIG. 12 the user can activate the arrowdown key a number of times instead of entering the last letter. As shownin FIG. 18, the syllable “zhang” is highlighted after five arrow downactivations, and from hereon it is just a matter of finding the wantedcharacter by activating the arrow right key once, as in FIG. 15. In FIG.18 the highlighting of a syllable is moved to the bottom of the list sothat now the syllables above the highlighted one are visible. Of coursethe highlighting could also stay at the top of the list, while thesyllables of the list are moved up or down correspondingly.

As mentioned above, the width of the graphical object 12 in FIG. 12 wasenlarged compared to the object 11 in FIG. 7 to accommodate the longerpinyin syllables. In case of even longer syllables the width of theobject can be further enlarged. As letters are added, the width of theobject is enlarged to accommodate the syllables. To avoid too manylayout changes the possible list widths can be chosen in steps like 25%,50% and 100% of the full width. If letters are deleted the object widthcan either be reduced, or the size can be kept unchanged. Keeping thesize makes it look less “jumpy”. If the syllable for some reason is solong that it cannot fit into the object even with the full width, thesyllable may be divided to appear on two or more lines, or the objectmay disappear completely so that the system returns to the normalpredictive editor format. However, this is a very uncommon situation.

The font size of the letters shown in the object may also be changed. Asshown in FIG. 19, which correspond to FIG. 7, the list can show fewersyllables having a larger font. Typically the list object can start withthe largest font and the smallest width, when the user starts enteringletters for a new character. FIG. 19 also illustrates that the graphicalobject can also be arranged in the middle of the display instead of thelocation to the right as in the other figures.

Although it is not shown in the examples above, a cursor may also beshown just after the highlighted syllable to further accentuate thissyllable and to indicate the insertion point of the next letter. Theoriginal cursor present in the text entry object itself, i.e. theeditor, might as mentioned before be turned off, or it can be shownnon-flashing or some other kind of hibernation mode to not confuse theuser.

in the examples mentioned above the second graphical object 21 is usedfor the presentation of the Chinese characters corresponding to thesyllable that is highlighted in the first graphical object. However, itcan be noted that the second graphical object may also be used for otherpurposes, such as presenting words in the Roman alphabet. As an example,in the English language the first object may present the words or wordstems matching the entered key sequence, i.e. also having the samenumber of letters. In this case the second graphical object couldpresent long or combined words beginning with the letter sequencehighlighted in the first graphical object, or associated words. The userthen has the possibility of selecting one of the longer words suggestedor to continue entering further letters.

Even though the input system described above has many advantages, suchas being faster and more accurate than the original predictive editor,it can of course be considered as a helping tool for the user, andtherefore it may also be possible to turn the function off, if a user insome circumstances prefers the original version of the predictiveeditor.

Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has beendescribed and shown, the invention is not restricted to it, but may alsobe embodied in other ways within the scope of the subject-matter definedin the following claims.

1. A method of entering text into an electronic communications device bymeans of a keypad having a number of keys, each key representing aplurality of letters and/or phonetic symbols, and wherein entered textis displayed on a display arranged on the electronic communicationsdevice, the method comprising: activating a sequence of keys; generatingpossible phonetic syllables corresponding to said activated keysequence; comparing said possible syllables with a vocabulary stored ina memory, said vocabulary comprising syllables and correspondingcharacters occurring in a given language; pre-selecting those of saidstored syllables and corresponding characters that match said possiblesyllables; and presenting a number of the pre-selected characters onsaid display, wherein a number of said pre-selected phonetic syllablesare presented on the display in a separate first graphical objectarranged predominantly on the display, and wherein characterscorresponding to at least one of the syllables presented in the firstgraphical object are simultaneously presented in a second graphicalobject.
 2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising: indicatingdistinctly one of the syllables presented in said separate firstgraphical object, wherein the characters presented in the secondgraphical object correspond to the syllable distinctly indicated.
 3. Amethod according to claim 2, further comprising: rank ordering thepre-selected phonetic syllables according to their frequency of use insaid language, and indicating distinctly as default the most commonlyused phonetic syllable in said separate first graphical object.
 4. Amethod according to claim 2, further comprising: allowing a user toindicate distinctly a different one of said pre-selected phoneticsyllables.
 5. A method according to claim 2, further comprising:allowing a user to select one of the characters corresponding to theindicated phonetic syllable, and adding the selected character to thetext displayed on the display.
 6. A method according to claim 5, furthercomprising: removing said first separate graphical object from thedisplay when a character has been selected.
 7. A method according toclaim 1, further comprising: removing said separate first graphicalobject from the display when a predefined period of time has elapsedsince the last activation of a key.
 8. A method according to claim 4,further comprising: arranging said number of pre-selected phoneticsyllables vertically in said separate first graphical object.
 9. Amethod according to claim 8, wherein allowing a user to indicatedistinctly a different one of said pre-selected phonetic syllablescomprises: allowing the user to navigate between individual pre-selectedphonetic syllables by activating an upwards-key for indicating aphonetic syllable presented just above the phonetic syllable presentlyindicated; and activating a downwards-key for indicating a phoneticsyllable presented just below the phonetic syllable presently indicated.10. A method according to claim 9, further comprising: allowing theuser, in the case where not all pre-selected phonetic syllables arepresented in said separate first graphical object, to exclude one of thepresently presented phonetic syllables and instead present a phoneticsyllable not presently presented by activation of one of the upwards-and downwards-keys.
 11. A method according to claim 1, furthercomprising: allowing the user to navigate between individual charactersin said second graphical object by activating a left, arrow key and/or aright arrow key.
 12. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:adjusting the width of said separate first graphical object according tothe length of the phonetic syllables being presented.
 13. A methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising: presenting the phoneticsyllables in said separate first graphical object with a font size whichis adjusted according to the length of the phonetic syllables beingpresented.
 14. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:generating said possible phonetic syllables as pinyin representations.15. A method according to claim 2, further comprising: showing a cursorin combination with the distinctly indicated phonetic syllable.
 16. Amethod according to claim 1, further comprising: keeping text that isdisplayed outside said separate first graphical object unchanged as longas said separate first graphical object is shown on the display.
 17. Amethod according to claim 1, further comprising: updating text that isdisplayed outside said separate first graphical object at a low ratecompared to the key activation rate as long as said separate firstgraphical object is shown on the display.
 18. An electroniccommunications device configured for entering text into the device,comprising: a keypad having a number of keys, each key representing aplurality of letters and/or phonetic symbols; a display arranged on theelectronic communications device, on which entered text may bedisplayed; a memory, wherein a vocabulary comprising phonetic syllablesand corresponding characters occurring in a given language is stored;means for generating possible phonetic syllables corresponding to asequence of activated keys; means for comparing said possible phoneticsyllables with said stored vocabulary (6) and pre-selecting storedphonetic syllables and corresponding characters that match said possiblesyllables; and means for presenting a number of the pre-selectedcharacters on said display, wherein said presenting means is arranged topresent a number of said pre-selected phonetic syllables on the displayin a separate first graphical object arranged predominantly on thedisplay, and to present characters corresponding to at least one of thesyllables presented in the first graphical object simultaneously in asecond graphical object.
 19. An electronic communications deviceaccording to claim 17, wherein said presenting means is furtherconfigured to indicate distinctly one of the syllables presented in saidseparate first graphical object, said distinctly indicated syllablecorresponding to the characters presented in the second graphicalobject.
 20. An electronic communications device according to claim 19,wherein the device is further configured to rank order the pre-selectedphonetic syllables according to their frequency of use in said language,and indicate distinctly as default the most commonly used phoneticsyllable in said separate first graphical object.
 21. An electroniccommunications device according to claim 19, wherein the device isfurther configured to allow a user to indicate distinctly a differentone of said pre-selected phonetic syllables.
 22. An electroniccommunications device according to claim 19, wherein the device isfurther configured to allow a user to select one of the characterscorresponding to the indicated phonetic syllable, and add the selectedcharacter to the text displayed on the display.
 23. An electroniccommunications device according to claim 22, wherein the device isfurther configured to remove said separate first graphical object fromthe display when a character has been selected.
 24. An electroniccommunications device according to claim 18, wherein the device isfurther configured to remove said separate first graphical object fromthe display when a predefined period of time has elapsed since the lastactivation of a key.
 25. An electronic communications device accordingto claim 21, wherein the device is further configured to present saidnumber of pre-selected phonetic syllables vertically in said separatefirst graphical object.
 26. An electronic communications deviceaccording to claim 25, wherein the device is further configured to allowa user to indicate distinctly a different one of said pre-selectedphonetic syllables by allowing the user to navigate between individualpre-selected phonetic syllables by activating an upwards-key forindicating a phonetic syllable presented just above the phoneticsyllable presently indicated, and by activating a downwards-key forindicating a phonetic syllable presented just below the phoneticsyllable presently indicated.
 27. An electronic communications deviceaccording to claim 26, wherein the device is further configured to allowthe user, in the case where not all pre-selected phonetic syllables arepresented in said separate first graphical object, to exclude one of thepresently presented phonetic syllables and instead present a phoneticsyllable not presently presented by activation of one of the upwards-and downwards-keys.
 28. An electronic communications device according toclaim 18, wherein the device is further configured to allow the user tonavigate between individual characters in said second graphical objectby activating a left arrow key and/or a right arrow key.
 29. Anelectronic communications device according to claim 18, wherein thedevice is further configured to adjust the width of said separate firstgraphical object according to the length of the phonetic syllables beingpresented.
 30. An electronic communications device according to claim 18wherein the device is further configured to present the phoneticsyllables in said separate first graphical object with a font size whichis adjusted according to the length of the phonetic syllables beingpresented.
 31. An electronic communications device according to claim18, wherein said possible phonetic syllables are pinyin representations.32. An electronic communications device according to claim 19, whereinthe device is further configured to show a cursor in combination withthe distinctly indicated phonetic syllable.
 33. An electroniccommunications device according to claim 18, wherein the device isfurther configured to keep text that is displayed outside said separatefirst graphical object unchanged as long as said separate firstgraphical object is shown on the display.
 34. An electroniccommunications device according to claim 18, wherein the device isfurther configured to update text that is displayed outside saidseparate first graphical object at a low rate compared to the keyactivation rate as long as said separate first graphical object is shownon the display.
 35. An electronic communications device according toclaim 18 wherein said generating means, comparing means and presentingmeans are implemented in a processor.